I am a sovereign, sentient* being. No one, no thing can affect my energy without my permission.

Now to put the affirmation to practice. Welcome every opportunity where you give your power away, because it is an opportunity for practice!

Helpful tip: Dr. Joe Dispenza suggests invoking the moniker “change” when you first start down the road with some version of “I don’t like/want/need this.”

Saying “change” is a good idea, but I’d add the breath. Conscious breathing gives you that wee window to make that choice to reaffirm and honor your sovereignty.

Say “change”, like you mean it, even if it’s silent. Then inhale for four seconds, hold it at the top of your head for four seconds, now exhale for another four. The counting with the breath will aid in interrupting any stress chemicals before they get a running start in the body. Repeat as necessary.

Now welcome your opportunities, and the chance to practice a whole new way of being! Change does take practice and commitment.

As this sovereign, sentient being, keep this in mind:

“Understand now — you can no longer complain.” Dr. Joe Dispenza

Bold statement, eh?! Because mostly everybody’s doing it, right?!

What’s wrong with complaining? It’s an outer reality-centric stance. It means you have declared that external circumstances dictate how you think and feel. One can’t be a sovereign, sentient being, and a complainer.

Complaining also says I am a victim of external situations and people. “They” or “it” make me feel such and such.

Complaining also releases stress chemicals in the body, that lead to disorder, illness, and decline in the body.

Yes, it can be hard to change old habits that have a well worn groove. How to change them then? One awareness at a time. Notice where the tendency to complain shows up, and consciously choose to withdraw your attention from it. But this is not a grin and bear it exercise. Won’t change a darn thing that way.

If your choices are to complain or stifle it, then spend more time in meditation or whatever leaves you knowing and feeling the “rapture of being alive”.**

The external world gets way less enticing when what goes on inside is a love affair with your God. You’ll eventually want that more than anything.

* sentient being can be defined as a consciously aware being
** quote attributed to Joseph Campbell

It’s been a very long time since I posted here, after 8 years solid of blogging! And I didn’t even say goodbye or see you later! So here I am — and so happy I have something to share with you today.

Briefly, want to add where I’ve been — I went through a major transition last year. My differently-abled son moved on to adult supported living last spring. I became progressively more ill as the year went by. Thanks to my naturopath, I got back on the right course, and just in time for October of last year. This is when I went to a Dr. Joe Dispenza “Progressive Workshop”, and learned exactly how it is that I made my body sick.

After that workshop true life changes began to take shape. I’ve just attended his next level workshop, the “Advanced”, and this one went even deeper. His work continues to be life changing in ways I never even dreamed possible.

The challenge with blogging about his work though, is it’s not just an intellectual process of gathering information, it has to be felt and experienced. This is achieved through meditation. So it’s been difficult for me to write about his work in a meaningful way. Today I think I have something to share that will be impactful.

About meditation — frankly when I saw him the first time, I thought — love the man’s heart, love his work, but I don’t know about this daily, sitting for long periods, mediation crap. Yet a couple of weeks later, I would come to commit to two days a week of at least 45 minutes of sitting meditation. Within another couple of weeks, I was meditating daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Now, I can’t not do it!

I posted this on my Facebook timeline yesterday, and some people said they really needed to hear it. So I share this now with you all, with the desire that you too, will benefit from it.

Two quotes from the workshop:

“Is the omnipresent always present with you? Is it possible you are not present with it?” (This is the secret benefits of meditation!)

“Stop arguing for your heavy baggage.”

At one point, Dr. Fannin was on stage speaking. He’s a big brain scientist, likes to measure things (I don’t). But he said one thing that I loved:

“How many neurons over a lifetime *dedicated* to worry?” (or fear, or guilt, or limitation of any kind)

I sat up and took notice when he used the word “dedicate”. He did not say spent, because it’s not like you hand over your money and get nothing back. Oh no, this dedication is an *investment* in worry, it’s not useless or wasted energy at all! It’s being used thoroughly, but in all the wrong places.

With that in mind, if you are a stock investor would you invest in a crap stock that signals your body to downgrade itself? Because that’s exactly what happens when we think and blindly surrender to thoughts and feelings that kick out stress chemicals.

We do uniquely have free will, we have a choice about where we direct our attention and therefore energy. Meditation helps with this tremendously. Settling the nervous system back down, time and time again, so we can come to live life in a less reactive, more mindful manner. There’s more benefits to doing his particular brand of meditations, but for now this explanation will suffice.

Now … back to “how many neurons over a lifetime *dedicated* to worry?” So while Dr. Fannin is speaking, I’m writing a rampage of turn arounds, here’s a portion of it.

How about … how many neurons dedicated to …

learning something new?
doing the uncommon?
being surprised by life?
being curious?
feeling vital?
feeling fed by life?
being present?
feeling awed by life?
feeling inspired?
feeling passion?
having a sacred relationship with your God?
feeling in love with life?
being at ease?